tabgrab

A small command-line tool to extract or restore the URL of every open tab in the current browser window on macOS.

Overview and Usage

tabgrab is a macOS-specific command-line tool to:

• output the URL of all open tabs of the current browser window (tabgrab grab)
• reopen tabs in a new browser window from a list of URLs (tabgrab tabs)

$ tabgrab -h
tabgrab: extract and restore URL tabs to and from the active browser window

Usage:
  grab:		extracts the URL from each tab of the active browser window
  tabs:		opens the provided URLs as tabs in a new browser window
  version:	displays application version information

Run `tabgrab <subcommand> -help` for subcommand usage and flags

Extract URLs from open tabs with the grab command:

$ tabgrab grab -h
`grab` extracts the URL from each tab of the active browser window

Usage of grab:
  -browser string
    	browser name (default "chrome")
  -clipboard
    	use clipboard for input/output
  -file string
    	path for output file containing newline-delimited list of URLs
  -max int
    	maximum number of tabs (default 100)
  -prefix string
    	optional prefix for each URL
  -quiet
    	disable console output
  -template string
    output format specifying tab URL with {{.URL}} tab name with {{.Name}} (default "{{.URL}}")
  -verbose
    	enable verbose output

Restore tabs from a list of URL with the tabs command:

$ tabgrab tabs -h
`tabs` opens the provided URLs as tabs in a new browser window

Usage of tabs:
  -browser string
    	browser name (default "chrome")
  -browser-args string
    	optional space-delimited arguments to be passed to the browser
  -clipboard
    	use clipboard for input/output
  -disable-prefix-warning
    	disables warning for potentially mismatched prefix flag and URL prefixes (default false)
  -file string
    	path to file containing newline-delimited list of URLs, ignored if -urls or -clipboard flag is used
  -max int
    	maximum number of tabs (default 100)
  -prefix string
    	optional prefix for each URL
  -urls string
    	newline-delimited list of URLs, typically the output from the grab command, ignored if -clipboard flag is used
  -verbose
    	enable verbose output

The following environment variables can be used to change default flag values:

• TABGRAB_BROWSER: sets the default for the browser flag
• TABGRAB_BROWSER_ARGS: sets the default for the browser-args flag
• TABGRAB_PREFIX: sets the the default for the prefix flag
• TABGRAB_TEMPLATE: sets the the default for the template flag

Examples

Using stdout

Extract all open tabs from the browser's current window (defaults)

$ tabgrab grab
https://github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab/tree/main
https://www.espn.com/
https://news.ycombinator.com/

Extract at most 2 open tabs from the current Safari window and output with a specified prefix

$ tabgrab grab -browser safari -max 2 -prefix "- "
- https://github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab/tree/main
- https://www.espn.com/

Output template

Extract the name and URL from all open tabs and output in markdown format

$ tabgrab grab -template "[{{.Name}}]({{.URL}})"
[ESPN - Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.](https://www.espn.com/)
[Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/)

Combine the above with a prefix

$ tabgrab grab -template "[{{.Name}}]({{.URL}})" -prefix "* "
* [ESPN - Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.](https://www.espn.com/)
* [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/)

A prefix can instead be included in the template string if so desired, but must be specified using the -prefix flag when restoring tabs with the tabs command.

Using the clipboard

To extract all open tabs to the clipboard:

$ tabgrab grab -quiet -clipboard

URL tabs can then be restored from the clipboard:

$ tabgrab tabs -quiet -clipboard

Using a file

$ tabgrab grab -quiet -file "my-tabs.txt"

URL tabs can then be restored from the clipboard:

$ tabgrab tabs -quiet -file "my-tabs.txt"

Multiple outputs

Output is written to each of stdout, the clipboard, and a specified file by including both the -file and -clipboard flags and removing the -quiet flag.

Support status for common browsers

• Chrome - supported (default)
• Brave - supported
• Safari - supported
• Firefox - not supported due to compatibility issues with the method used for extracting tab URLs

Installation Options

• Download a pre-built binary (see releases):

  ARM:

  $ curl -o tabgrab -L https://github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab/releases/latest/download/tabgrab_darwin_arm64
  

  AMD:

  $ curl -o tabgrab -L https://github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab/releases/latest/download/tabgrab_darwin_amd64
  

• Install using Go:

  $ go install github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab@latest
  

• Build from source by cloning this repository and running go build in the tabgrab root directory.

Security

tabgrab makes no guarantees about security and executes shell commands/Apple Scripts to open browser applications.